


Experiment

by pirategirljack



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: F/M, boone is confused, experimental kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 16:39:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8292688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategirljack/pseuds/pirategirljack
Summary: Am I the only one that ships Three and Anne Droid?





	

“Anne? Are you in here--ah, there you are," Three says, coming into the room in that way he has, like he hadn't intended any of it and was just wandering past.

“Yes, Three?”

“I was looking for you to--what's wrong?”

She looked down. Not at him. “I have come to an unpleasant conclusion.”

“Oh?”

“My upgrade makes me more human, but it also makes me a danger to my ship and my crew--to my friends. But I can't bring myself to remove it. Can you do it for me?”

“Why me?”

“Because I trust you.”

“...why?” He sounded like he was trying to sound whiny, but under it, because of the upgrade in question, she heard surprise, uncertainty, that very human lack of faith in himself that he always had when someone thought he was worth anything. It made everything harder.

“Because you have always been kind to me, in your own way.” She took his hand, lifted it to her neck, just under her jaw, guided his fingertips to the almost invisible seam...and lingered there, looking into his eyes. She doesn't shiver at his touch, since she has no autonomic responses, but there's a tingle through her sensory wires that she thinks might be similar. His hand stays where she put it, the thumb brushing over her cheek just a little, as if it has a mind of it's own.

“Humans crave affection," she said, suddenly.

His eyebrows draw together. “Sometimes, yeah.”

“I think I have that in common with them. May I run an experiment?”

“Okay…?”

She kisses him. She's not entirely sure what to expect, but it's not like when she was kissed before. He's surprised, but he kisses back, and his free hand goes around her waist. It's like the second her lips touched his, he forgot that he didn't trust synthetic lifeforms. Like he'd been trying to remember because it wasn't true anymore, but he was holding on to it anyway.

“Wow, that felt--”

“Strange?” And she went to pull away, her emotional subroutines clashing and conflicting like static in her neural net, but he stopped her.

“Real,” he said. He pulled her close again and kissed her back, making it more real. She sensed his heart rate picking up, notes the shift in hormones. Then he pulls the chip from her neck and she shuts down, her eyes open but gone black. She knew she was rebooting, she should have no awareness of any of this, but there's some small part of her that's different from how she should be now, and she watched while the rest of her cycled back up. He didn't move his hand from her cheek, but he did lean his forehead against hers. “Goodbye,” he mumbled.

She reboots, blinks, looks up at him. “Hello.”

“Do you--can you remember--”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Can you feel--that sort of thing? Without the chip?”

“I don't know. I have the alternate programming to serve in that capacity and emulate emotional responses like all androids, and I can gather sensory input that would qualify as...pleasurable. Even without the chip making the feelings real. But I have not been needed to activate that programming since I awoke shortly after you did. I know, even like this, I can feel...alone. I can feel pride. Anger, sometimes. I feel close to my crew. I feel...drawn to you.”

“What?”

“I'm not supposed to feel anything. I am a machine, an extension of the ship and its computer. I am here to serve. It shouldn't be possible to be anxious or lonely or sad. It shouldn't be possible for those things to feel better when you're here.”

“But why me? I'm not anything special.”

“You are! You are gruff and sarcastic, but you're also gentle with Five and you treat me like a person, not a machine. You loved Two. You were a friend to One. You are charming, when you want to be.”

“I think you think too highly of me.”

“I don't believe so.”

He quieted down for a long string of heartbeats, and she waited, patient, since impatience is an emotion and she didn't have her chip. When he finally turned back, though, there was a tiny smudge of hopefulness in his glance, and it ripped through her chest as if she actually had a heart. “So, that experiment...Do you wanna, maybe, try it again? Test if it's really the chip that made it work?”

“We could escalate this experiment, if you like.”

“I'm not sure that would be a good idea.”

“Oh.”

“No, it's not--Anne, I don't want to use you. You're not a toy or a tool. If you don't get anything out of it, that's what I'd be using you as, and I'm not interested in that.”

“I believe I'm different from most of my kind. Flawed, but intentionally so. Maybe I can feel things so that I can live a normal human life. So I can bond with humans. So I can love. So I can express that love.”

“That's a lot of maybes.”

“We can only be sure if we try.”

“But do you want to? Really want to?”

“I want to kiss you again. I want to see what kissing can lead to. I want to know what it's like.”

“Are you sure?”

“With you, yes.”

And so he kissed her. And then he pulled back again.

“But are you sure? Are you sure it's me you want? There's all sorts of better men around, even just on this ship. Are you sure you can choose?”

“I'm not a pleasure droid, programmed only to please. Nor am I programmed only to obey. I have free will in most things, almost as much free will as you, and I have opinions and a sense of what would be good and what would not. I think you would be good to me. I think I could be good for you. I am willing to trust you and to test the theory.”

“But do you want this?” He waved his hand vaguely, indicating himself, scruffy and rumpled as much as their situation.

“Yes. I want this. And I want you.”

“Do you know what that means?”

“Not entirely. But I am more drawn to you than ever. I am fascinated by you. I want to touch you and be touched by you, and the fact that you have more experience than I do in the actual application of things I only have untested programming in is intriguing--”

“Okay, I got it I just--”

“You don't want to hurt me.”

“Yeah.”

“Physically, I don't think you can. Androids are made of biomimetic synthetic compounds and feel and function like natural biology but are stronger and more resilient than human equivalents--”

“That's not the sort of hurting I'm worried about.”

“Oh." She blinked, several times. "That is...more delicate. But I don't think you will. You have already avoided several opportunities to take advantage of my curiosity.”

“I'm a criminal, Anne. I'm not a good man.”

“You're not a bad man, either. And I'm not a person at all.”

“You are.”

“Not legally.”

He looked like he was keying up to start a fight, and she thought she'd said the wrong thing, but instead of getting more angry, the way she'd seen him do in almost every confrontation on the ship, he took a swift step toward her, took her face in his hands, and looked her dead in the eyes as he said, “The law doesn't know shit about being a person. You're a person.”

He'd surprised her. She liked him even more. “Thank you.”

She kissed him again, and he kissed her back, with only a little hesitation, that quickly melted into a cheerful enthusiasm.


End file.
